The City of New Orleans has begun placing containers to dispose of used syringes to reduce the amount of needle litter being reported around the city.

New Orleans has mirrored the rest the of the country with the increase of opioid use. There were 219 reported accidental drug overdose deaths in 2017 in New Orleans, according to the most recent data provided by the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office. In 2015 there were only 92 reported overdose deaths in Orleans Parish.

Over the past few years the City of New Orleans has received an increasing number of calls about needle litter through 311 and other departments equipped to remove this type of litter, a city spokesperson said on Thursday (March 14).

To help these efforts, the city has begun to place containers equipped to handle hazardous waste in areas where needles are frequently found.

The city will be expanding the location of these public sharps containers throughout the spring and will have a map of the locations available online through their Nopioids.la website.

The New Orleans City Council approved an ordinance in 2017 legalizing clean needle exchange programs in order to reduce the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis C, which can be spread by sharing used needles.

The current public sharps containers are located at the following intersections:

Tulane Ave. & Loyola Ave.

Claiborne Ave. and Canal St.

Simon Bolivar Blvd. & Calliope St.

Maria Clark writes about immigration, health care, the moon and other topics for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Reach her at mclark@nola.com. Or follow her on Twitter at @MariaPClark1 .